True Crime : Streets of New York ISOMarcus Reed is a gang member who inherited his incarcerated father’s criminal empire in New York City. Several years later, Reed is betrayed by a friend and assumed dead after an ambush. Covered in blood and injured, Reed shows up unexpectedly at the betrayer’s house to exact revenge. After a bloody, running gunfight with gang members, Reed corners the betrayer in a building basement and guns him down. Dropping his empty Uzi, Reed is almost shot and killed by another gang member, but an NYPD detective named Terry Higgins saves Reed.

Isaiah Reed (Marcus’ father) and Higgins have been friends for a long time. Higgins tells Reed that he should be ashamed of the level he’s sunk to. Although Reed willingly offers to allow Higgins to arrest him, Higgins refuses. He says that he’s going to cover up Reed’s involvement in the shoot-out, but this will be his final chance to clean up his act before he’s left to the mercy of the NYPD. Reed agrees, and shuffles off to tend to his injuries. As he does so, Higgins sighs and says, “Merry Christmas.”

Five years later, Marcus Reed is now an officer of the NYPD, having worked the beat for four years to become one of the precinct’s best street cops with Higgins’ mentoring and guidance. At the urging of Higgins, he applies to test for his detective’s badge and a transfer to the Organized Crime Unit. After passing the test with flying colors, but the head detective does not believe he is ready so Terry takes Reed out for a few basics, afterwards Reed and Higgins go to visit Reed’s father in jail. The visit is cut short by a phone call to Higgins. A contact for a case he’s working on has called a meeting in another part of town. Marcus Reed and Higgins hurry to the contact point. Before getting out of the car, Higgins instructs Reed to come in guns blazing if he’s gone for too long. As Higgins walks into the building with a briefcase, Reed leans over to pick up some of Higgins’ cigarettes that have fallen out of the glove box, and suddenly, a massive explosion sends the undercover squad car flying through the air.

Back at the precinct, Reed is informed that Higgins was killed in the explosion. Reed is denied a place in the OCU, for now[citation needed]. Marcus is then informed that he will be going back out on the street as a plainclothes cop while the department investigates Higgins’ murder. As Reed resumes his duties, he is contacted by FBI agent Gabriel Whitting, who requests a meeting in a parking garage downtown. Whitting informs Reed that a member of the OCU is a mole and likely organized Higgins’ death. Whitting does not know who but does know that the mole was working with four major crime syndicates: the Magdalena Cartel, the President’s Club, the Palermo Mob, and the Shadow Tong. Whitting wants Reed to investigate these four crime groups to track down Higgins’ killer. After being given a folder with information on the Magdalena Cartel, Reed sets off on his mission of revenge while attending to his street duties along the way.